Patrick Faas (translated from the Dutch by Shaun Whiteside),Around the Roman Table (Palgrave McMillan, 2003)
Mary Ella Milham, Platina: On Right Pleasure and Good Health: A Critical Edition and Translation of De Honesta Voluptate et Valetudine (Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1998)

These two recent books both attempt to make ancient Roman cuisine
(and incidentally its culture) accessible to modern readers. They
will appeal to lovers of historical fantasy by filling in the
background details of the era in which many such works are set. They
will probably appeal less to gourmets, as after a few pages it
becomes obvious that Italian food was very different 2,000 years ago,
or even 500 years ago. Indeed, Palgrave McMillan includes the
following note: "The publishers offer these recipes for historical
interest, but there is no guarantee they will suit the modern palate."

Around the Roman Table is not just a cookbook. It is divided into
two parts (not counting the Foreword and the Introduction). Part One
is an overview of Roman life, taking in topics such as history,
culinary habits, social organization, architecture and furniture.
While necessarily brief, it puts the recipes into context. Part Two
contains the recipes themselves, along with more social and cultural
commentary. Most of the recipes are from Apicius, but some come from
Pliny and various other sources.

Faas has an interesting way of presenting the recipes. First he gives
the original Latin recipe, then a translation of the recipe and
finally a modern interpretation of the same recipe. Roman recipes
were sketchy  perhaps so that chefs could protect their professional
secrets  so Faas' modern versions are much longer and more detailed.
The book doesn't state whether the translations of the recipes are
from the original Latin or from a Dutch version by Faas.

Around the Roman Table is amply illustrated with line drawings from
a long list of sources. It has a bibliography, an index, a glossary
and an appendix listing weights, measures, units of money and prices.
The text is accompanied by footnotes.

De Honesta is not just a cookbook either. In ten books (chapters),
Platina discusses everything from where to build a house, to how to
exercise, to what to eat in which season. His recipes are annotated
with health advice firmly grounded in the science of his era. For
instance, one dish "drives sticky humors from the head"  a reference
to the four-humour theory of medicine.

Platina based his work on both ancient and modern (to him) sources.
Much of his information is from Pliny's Natural History, but his
other sources include Cato, Varro, Columello, C. Matius and Apicius.
Many of his recipes are from Maestro Martino de Rossi, the most
famous chef of the day.

The recipes themselves are neither very appealing nor easy to
duplicate, including as they do culinary delights such as sow's udder
and carob beans. Platina wasn't into level measurements: "as much
rich broth as necessary" and "as much salt as the situation demands"
are typical quantities. Even he wasn't convinced some of these dishes
were either tasty or healthy, and in one case he even recommends that
the reader "serve it to your enemy."

Milham starts out with a biography of Platina. She discusses his
sources and gives a history of the text and its many editions. She
also discusses the identities of the friends he mentions and includes
a bibliography of Platina's other books. Then comes the De Honesta
itself, with the original Latin and the English translation on facing
pages.

This is definitely a scholarly work. The text is heavily footnoted.
There are three indices (the index to the introduction, the index nominum proprium and the index verborum
medicorum et culinariorum), a detailed textual history with
sigla, stemma and stemmatic proofs, and a list about ten pages long
of works cited. An index of recipes might have been nice, should
anyone actually be tempted to try to reproduce them. There is only
one illustration, Melozzo da Forlė's Sixtus IV appointing
Bartolomeo Sacchi, called Platina, the Prefect of the Vatican Library.

Around the Roman Table is more accessible than De Honesta, and
the adapted recipes are more feasible. It also has better
illustrations. But the two are based on the same ancient sources; indeed
I suspect that Around the Roman Table is the book Platina would
write if he were alive now. Around the Roman Table, coming from a
major publisher, is also easier to find, but De Honesta is listed
on Amazon.com.

I can't really comment on the quality of the translations, as I read
neither Latin nor Dutch. As a certified translator with over twenty
years' of experience, I can say that both books read well and only
faintly "smell" of translation (as we say in the profession), but I
can't evaluate their accuracy.

Patrick Faas is a food historian and chef, and a food columnist for
Der Volkskrant. Mary Ella Milham is professor emerita of Classics at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. Neither Patrick Faas nor Mary Ella Milham has a Web site, but you can
find biographical information and pictures of Faas here and of Milham here.

"Platina" is the pseudonym of Bartolomeo Sacchi, who was born in 1421
in Piadena and died on September 21, 1481, in Rome. He held various
positions in his career, the most important of which was prefect of
the Vatican Library. He has an entry in the Catholic Encyclopedia here. As well, a Web site called
Stefan's Florilegium has extensive comments on Platina and De
Honesta.